BOSTON – The mystery of the breakfast shared by Kobe Bryant and Rajon Rondo has been solved.

“It was delicious,” Bryant said.

Phew.

Now that that’s out of the way, what of the substance of conversation shared between the two rivals, whose friendship and admiration has heightened since their worlds intersected in the 2008 and 2010 NBA Finals?

“We just talked about the game,” Bryant said. “We talked about the league and we talked about good old memories of playing in the series against each other. Different strategies of what they tried to do against us, what we tried to do against them. It was a basketball geek conversation.”

Bryant, of course, understands that the Thursday morning meet-up led to much speculation that the meal provided an opportunity for Bryant to sell Rondo, a free agent next summer and potential trade target right now, on the virtues of joining him in L.A.

When this was mentioned to Bryant following the Lakers’ shoot around at TD Garden, a perturbed look flashed across his face and he sarcastically countered, “No, I haven’t ever thought about having any future teammates before.”

So it was not, to borrow some college terminology, a recruiting visit?

“No, we get along extremely well,” Bryant said. “We see the game in a similar fashion in terms of our aggressiveness, and mindset and it was good to get together with him.”

Bryant has long expressed an appreciation for Rondo’s style of playing, even going as far last year as surmising that the Celtics point guard is “an a—hole like me.”

“I just never understood how a guy that size could get 17, 20 rebounds,” Bryant said. “Still don’t understand. It’s unbelievable.”

Friday will mark a striking return to the Garden for Bryant, who grew up watching the Celtics-Lakers rivalry in the 1980s, and finally got to be a part of it in two NBA Finals.

“In the moment we were just so caught up with trying to beat them,” Bryant said, “you don’t understand the significance of actually participating in a Lakers-Celtics finals. For me, growing up to see that and actually playing in one? Looking back now, that’s amazing.”

The Lakers and Celtics are now far from those halcyon days. After losing in Washington on Wednesday, the Lakers are 5-14, while the Celtics are 5-11.

It seems like a long road back to the top for both franchises, but that’s not something Bryant, who has repeatedly said he expects to compete for another championship before retiring, will acknowledge.

He even pondered the idea of playing one more Finals against the Celtics. Best two out of three, maybe?

“That would be nice,” Bryant said. “I don’t know about them, but I know we are certainly on the path to be able to do it pretty quickly.”

Finding a way to acquire a certain point guard would certainly speed up that process.

Bill Oram covers the Los Angeles Lakers for the Southern California News Group. He covered the Utah Jazz for the Salt Lake Tribune. He is the (usually) bearded guy in the background wearing a University of Montana hat.